The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of the United Kingdom Parliament has today published a report into the practical arrangements to be made following the Government’s announcement in principle to permit the commercial cultivation of GM crops in the United Kingdom.

Matters such as the details of the regime which will allow GM and non-GM and organic crops to co-exist, and of liability for contamination or admixture, still have to be worked out. They will be the subject of a Government consultation.

In the report the Committee examines the areas in which consultation should concentrate. These are primarily, at what level the threshold for contamination or admixture of GM in non-GM or organic crops should be set and how issues of liability should be approached.

The Committee argues that it is important now to establish co-existence and liability regimes.

The Government may hope that now that the decision in principle has been made it will be easier to finalise the details of a planting regime. But the Committee warns that it should be under no such illusions: it is apparent that the prospect of agreement is remote.

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The Agricultural Biotechnology Council (abc)

UK’s Agricultural Biotechnology Council welcomes EFRA Committee’s call for momentum on “GM planting regime”

The Agricultural Biotechnology Council (abc) today welcomed the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee report on “GM Planting Regime” especially their overriding intention that the government must, in the near future, start the intended consultation and then “establish co-existence and liability regimes”.

abc Deputy Chairman Tony Combes said “abc concur with the Committee’s view that the government has engaged in a “lengthy process of testing and consultation about the cultivation of GM crops” and said it was now time for the government to finalise conditions that will allow UK farmers to benefit from GM crops while not effecting other forms of Agriculture”.

He said abc supported the guidance of the EFRA committee in defining “areas in which the consultation should concentrate”. However, he went on to say “we do not agree with their suggestion that “the prospect of agreement is remote” when most stakeholders are actively looking for workable solutions”.

abc acknowledges that adventitious presence of 0.9% is the legal threshold applicable within the EU and are happy to consult and develop co-existence plans to ensure this level is met and help to ensure that non-GM farmers are not impacted by the introduction of GM crops.

Mr Combes said that the voluntary desire of some market sectors to seek a lower limit (such as 0.1% for some sections of the organic sector) for their own marketing purposes would place unnecessary and unacceptably onerous requirements on GM farmers. abc believe that those sectors of the market looking to supply niche products below the legal limit accepted by the vast majority, should maintain the responsibility to ensure their self imposed voluntary limits are reached.

abc continue to look forward to the government-led consultation process and remain confident that workable, practical and proportionate measures can be put in place without new legislation, to ensure all forms of agriculture can co-exist in the UK.

In 18 other countries, 7 million farmers grow 167 million acres of GM crops without the co-existence measures being proposed in the EU. In the United States, where GM crops have been grown for nearly 10 years, the organic market is growing at 20% annually and is now worth $9 billion. (http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOPPresentation/IndustryStats.html) 

The Agricultural Biotechnology Council (abc) was set up in 2002 to provide a forum for the debate and education surrounding GM technology in the United Kingdom.

The members of abc are BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta. These companies are working together to promote a fair debate surrounding the production of GM crops and also to provide education about GM in the UK.